1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a cleaning device for an electrophotographic copying machine, and more particularly to a cleaning device suited for preventing an untransferred toner from depositing within the housing, thereby preventing contamination of the interior of the machine.
2. Prior Art
A conventional cleaning device disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 62-23080 comprises a seal member for collecting an untransferred toner, scraped off from a photosensitive member by a blade, in a housing, and a convey means for discharging the collected toner from the housing. Projections are formed on part of the seal member to interfere with the convey means, so that vibration can be imparted to the seal member by the convey means through the projections, thereby preventing the toner from depositing on the seal member. With such structure, the contact between the seal member and the surface of the photosensitive member becomes imperfect when the seal member is subjected to vibration, which results in a risk that the toner is scattered into the machine.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 64-59283 discloses a cleaning device comprising a rotary screw for conveying a toner and a guide plate or a vibrating member formed, at an edge portion thereof contacted with the rotary screw, with projections spaced apart from each other. The rotary screw contacts and presses the projections to vibrate the guide plate, thereby leading the toner fallen onto the guide plate to the rotary screw. With this structure, however, the pressing force applied by the rotary screw to the projections of the guide plate for vibrating the latter is difficult to be propagated to the portions of the guide plate other than the projections, which makes it difficult to lead the toner accumulated on the latter portions of the guide plate to the rotary screw.
Thus, in the device disclosed in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 64-59283 it is difficult to effectively vibrate the vibrating member on which the toner scraped off and falling from the photosensitive member is accumulated or deposited, and hence to trustworthily lead the toner falls onto the vibrating member to the rotary screw.